John Ternus used his first product keynote as Apple’s chief executive to set the company’s AI course: no dedicated AI gadget, just the iPhone doing the work. Speaking at the Surprise and Shine event on September 9, Ternus described the ideal AI companion as an intelligent personal hub that knows a user’s context, travels everywhere with them, runs models on-device and reaches the cloud when needed.
His conclusion was that such a device already exists. Ternus, who took over from Tim Cook as Cook moved to executive chairman, argued that nothing is better suited to that role than the iPhone, and he tied the pitch to privacy. Others treat personal data as something to collect and store, he said, while Apple Intelligence runs on-device wherever it can because trust only goes so far when data stops being yours.
The hardware announced alongside the speech backs the on-device claim. The A20 Pro, built on 2-nanometer process technology, packs a dual 16-core Neural Engine with 32 total cores that Apple says doubles AI processing power over the A19 Pro, plus a six-core CPU with integrated Neural Accelerators and a seven-core GPU that is up to 40 percent faster. New packaging inspired by Apple’s M-series silicon sits the die beside memory for better sustained performance.
iPhone 18 Pro pricing starts at $1,199, with preorders opening ahead of an iOS 27 release on September 14 that brings the new Siri AI assistant in beta.
